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The Aristocats
The Aristocats is a 1970 American animated feature film produced and released by Walt Disney Productions and features the voices of Eva Gabor, Hermione Baddeley, Phil Harris, Dean Clark, Sterling Holloway, Scatsman Crothers, and Roddy Maude-Roxby. The 20th animated feature in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series, the film is based on a story by Tom McGowan and Tom Rowe, and revolves around a family of aristocratic cats, and how an alley cat acquaintance helps them after a butler has kidnapped them to gain his mistress' fortune which was intended to go to them. It was originally released to theaters by Buena Vista Distribution on December 11, 1970. The film is noted for being the last film project to actually be approved by Walt Disney himself, as he died in late 1966, before the film was released. He had, however, been working in the story development for The Rescuers (1977) as early as 1962. The Aristocats gained positive reviews on first release and was a box office success. Plot In Paris in 1910, mother cat Duchess and her three kittens, Marie, Berlioz and Toulouse, live with retired opera diva Madame Adelaide Bonfamille and her English butler, Edgar. While preparing her will with lawyer Georges Hautecourt, Madame declares her fortune to be left to her cats until their deaths, and thereafter to Edgar. Edgar hears this through a speaking tube, and plots to eliminate the cats. Therefore, he sedates the cats by sleeping pills in their food, and enters the countryside to abandon them. There, he is ambushed by two hounds, named Napoleon and Lafayette, and the cats are stranded in the countryside, while Madame Adelaide, Roquefort the mouse and FrouFrou, the horse, discover their absence. In the morning, Duchess meets an alley cat named Thomas O'Malley, who offers to guide her and the kittens to Paris. The group briefly hitchhike in a milk cart before being chased off by the driver. Later, while crossing a railroad trestle, the cats narrowly avoid an oncoming train, but Marie falls into a river and is saved by O'Malley; himself rescued by two English geese, Amelia and Abigail Gabble, who accompany the cats to Paris. Edgar returns to the country to retrieve his possessions from Napoleon and Lafayette, as the only evidence that could incriminate him. Traveling across the rooftops of the city, the cats meet O'Malley's friend Scat Cat and his musicians, who perform the scat song Everybody Wants to Be a Cat. After the band has departed, O'Malley and Duchess converse on a nearby rooftop while the kittens listen at a windowsill. Here, Duchess' loyalty to Madame prompts her to decline O'Malley's proposal of marriage. Duchess and the kittens return to Madame's mansion, but Edgar places them in a sack and prepared to ship them to Timbuktu; whereupon they direct Roquefort to retrieve O'Malley. He does so and O'Malley returns to the mansion, ordering Roquefort to find Scat Cat and his gang. This done, the alley cats and FrouFrou fight Edgar, while Roquefort frees Duchess and the kittens. In the end of the fight, Edgar is locked in his own packing-case and sent to Timbuktu himself. Madame Adelaide's will is rewritten to exclude Edgar, with Madame expressing surprise at Edgar's departure. After adopting O'Malley into the family, Madame establishes a charity foundation housing Paris' stray cats (represented by Scat Cat and his band, who reprise their song). Cast * Eva Gabor as Duchess (speaking) * Robie Lester as Duchess (singing) * Phil Harris as Thomas O'Malley (full name: Abraham de Lacy Giuseppe Casey Thomas O'Malley) * Gary Dubin as Toulouse * Liz English as Marie * Dean Clark as Berlioz * Roddy Maude-Roxby as Edgar Balthazar * Scatman Crothers as Scat Cat * Sterling Holloway as Roquefort * Paul Winchell as Shun Gon * Lord Tim Hudson as Hit Cat * Vito Scotti as Peppo * Thurl Ravenscroft as Billy Boss * Pat Buttram as Napoleon * George Lindsey as Lafayette * Hermione Baddeley as Madame Adelaide Bonfamille * Charles Lane as Georges Hautecourt * Nancy Kulp as Frou-Frou * Monica Evans as Abigail Gabble * Carole Shelley as Amelia Gabble * Bill Thompson as Uncle Waldo * Peter Renaday as French Milkman, Le Petit Cafe Cook and Truck Movers Songs * The Aristocats (sung by Maurice Chevalier) * Scales and Arpeggios (performed by Liz English, Gary Dubin, Dean Clark and Robie Lester * Thomas O'Malley Cat (sung by Phil Harris) * Everybody Wants To Be A Cat (performed by Phil Harris, Scotsman Crothers, Liz English, Thurl Ravenscroft, Lord Tim Hudson, Paul Winchell, Vito Scotti and Robie Lester) * She Never Felt Alone (performed by Robie Lester) Cancelled sequel In 2005, DisneyToon Studios originally planned to make a follow-up to the movie, along with sequels to Chicken Little and Meet the Robinsons. Originally intended to be a 2D animated feature, Disney executives decided to produce the film in computer animation in order to garner more interest. Additionally, the story was meant to center around Marie, Duchess's daughter, who becomes smitten by another kitten aboard a luxury cruise ship. However, she and her family must soon take on a jewel thief on the open seas. However, the project was cancelled when John Lasseter was named Disney's new chief creative officer, in which he called off all future sequels DisneyToon had planned and instead to make original productions or spin-offs. International releases For information about international dubs and releases, The Aristocats/International. Category:1970 films Category:1970s Americans animated films Category:American musical films Category:Films produced by Winston Hibler Category:Films produced by Wolfgang Reitherman Category:Films directed by Wolfgang Reitherman Category:Film scores by George Bruns Category:Walt Disney Animation Studios films Category:Walt Disney Pictures Category:Walt Disney Feature Animation